www.uninews.com

Air India year profit slides 82 percent: company source

NEW DELHI, Sept 26, 2006 (UNI)

International flag-carrier Air India’s net profit slid in 2006 by 82 percent, hit by high fuel costs and competition from private rivals, a source at the state-owned airline said Tuesday.

The net profit for the year to March totalled 162.9 million rupees (3.54 million dollars) on revenues that rose 25 percent to 96.77 billion rupees, an airline spokesman who did not wish to be named said.

Tougher times loomed, the airline spokesman said, predicting that revenue growth would slow to 15 percent in the current financial year.

Air India’s fuel bill jumped by almost 44 percent to hit 31.34 billion rupees in 2005-06, up from 21.82 billion in the previous year.

‘‘Overall fundamentals were sound but expenses rose sharply led by factors like higher aviation fuel costs,’’ the airline official said.

Earlier this month, Air India announced it had raised its jet fuel hedging limit to 75,000 barrels per day from 30,000 in a bid to offset volatile fuel prices.

The airline this year became the first Indian carrier to hedge its fuel costs through the use of financial derivative tools such as swaps.

The numbers of passengers rose nine percent to 4.8 million, the official said.

Air India has been under pressure from mounting competition from other international carriers which boast newer fleets and Indian private rivals that have begun flights to London and Southeast Asia.

In January, Air India signed an agreement to buy 68 Boeing jets for around 11 billion dollars to upgrade its ageing fleet, marking the biggest deal in Indian aviation history.

COUGAR wrote:

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My experience at the AI booking office:

Bang at 1pm, the watchman slams the main door shut, and barring the 3 girls handling the customers, the rest of the staff start having their meals and making idle talk AT the desks in full view of the passengers!!

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The same in any State Government or Government of India undertaking/office. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2091481.cms
Another case of theft on AI, crew held with booze
Manju V
[ 5 Oct, 2006 0315hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
 
 
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

MUMBAI: Nothing can stop the pilferage of liquor bottles from Air India's in-flight bar, it seems.

Months after reports of stolen liquor bottles onboard the Prime Minister's Air India flight generated a rash of bad publicity for the airline, theft seems to be back: another cabin crew member was caught red-handed recently.

According to sources, Jaya P (name changed), an AI cabin crew member and committee member of the AI Cabin Crew Association, was caught red-handed by the airline security, when she disembarked from a London-Delhi flight where she was on duty.

"She had cleared customs and was on her way out, when she was intercepted by the AI security. Bottles of Red Label were found in her bag that were stolen from the in-flight consumption bar," said the source.

AI spokesperson confirmed the incident, saying that investigation is on into the matter. Pilferage of beverages or other items meant for airline passengers amounts to violation of cabin crew service ethics and is dealt with seriously by airlines around the world.

The rules are strict and most international airlines dismiss those who do not follow the code of conduct.

Air India has been cracking down on such thefts, since the time it earned notoriety for thefts that took place on the airline's high-security flights operated for the Prime Minister. 
 

 http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/09/news/musician.php
Dispute over airline rules gets out of hand 
By Doreen Carvajal International Herald Tribune

Published: October 9, 2006
 
PARIS As the international airline authorities strive to harmonize the rules for carry-on luggage, a Russian- American jazz musician is nursing a broken arm sustained in a struggle with the French airport police that erupted over his demand that he be permitted to board a flight with his prized trumpet.
 
Valery Ponomarev, 63, once a member of Art Blakey's "Jazz Messengers," was preparing to board an Air India flight Sept. 9 from Paris to New York City when a routine airport ritual erupted into a fierce dispute over his 1961 Connstellation trumpet.
 
"If you've ever played a musical instrument, then you should know how strong the bond is between the musician and the instrument," Ponomarev said in an interview, explaining his unlikely emergence as a jazz warrior. "You wouldn't give your baby away to anybody and so you wouldn't give away your horn."
 
In his case, the ties were so powerful that he simply would not let go of his trumpet case, which also contained a fluegelhorn.
 
But the authorities were not sympathetic and maintained that the trumpeter had hit all the wrong notes in a time of heightened security.
 
Ponomarev said that when he arrived late to board his evening flight, a flustered Air India employee retrieved his trumpet from a luggage belt at a security checkpoint without explanation to place it in the plane's hold.
 
Ponomarev protested vigorously, he said, because he had carried the instrument onto an earlier connecting flight and also had noticed that another passenger was carrying aboard a sitar. His angry complaints attracted the notice of an Air India supervisor, who summoned the police.
 
Four officers came running to take his trumpet case, but Ponomarev refused to give it to them, prompting one of them to subdue him by wrenching his arm behind his back, breaking it.
 
The airport authorities and the police confirmed that the incident took place as Ponomarev was trying to board the flight at Charles de Gaulle airport.
 
But in the view of the police, the musician bears responsibility for his injury. "The officers tried to subdue him and you can say that he hurt himself by rebelling," a spokesman for the airport police said.
 
H. Rana, the regional manager for Air India's Paris office, said airline employees called the police because Ponomarev insisted on carrying his music case on board. She said that Air India required the check-in of large instruments, although it would permit smaller ones.
 
In Europe, carry-on rules vary among airlines. Last week, the European Commission moved to harmonize the rules, with new regulations taking effect in the spring that restrict liquids carried aboard to personal use and that limit luggage size. But there will be an exemption for cameras and musical instruments, which are permitted in airplane cabins.
 
The changes come too late for Ponomarev, who said that after his arm was broken he was held in detention without treatment for six hours and was not allowed to make any telephone calls.
 
Ultimately, he was taken to a hospital, where a doctor loaned him a cellphone to call the U.S. Embassy.
 
After surgery, Ponomarev returned Sept. 13 to the United States on another Air India flight. With metal pins holding the bones of his left arm together, Ponomarev said the break had an immediate effect on his career: He was forced to cancel a musical engagement and limit his daily practice because it was too painful to hold the trumpet with his weakened arm.
 
By late September, though, he decided to participate in one long-scheduled jazz concert in Russia, where he was born, although he has lived in the United States since 1973. The announcer, he said, explained to the audience that Ponomarev was playing despite a struggle with the French police.
 
"I think the audience thought that he was joking," Ponomarev said. But he still took the microphone to correct the announcer. "They didn't win the battle," he said. "They broke my arm. But the horn is still with me."
 

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200610151927.htm

Stranded plane returns to India, passengers furious

New Delhi, Oct. 15 (PTI): An Air India flight grounded at London's Heathrow airport for the past two days arrived here this afternoon with over 300 passengers, who appeared angry at the airline's handling of the situation.

A large number of relatives were present to receive the passengers of the New York-London-New Delhi-Mumbai flight that touched down at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here at around 1200 hours.

The passengers, who said they had undergone an unexpected ordeal in the past two days in London, vent their ire at Air India officials who "did not do anything" to help them.

A majority of them said they had spent a night inside the airport and then about two days in a "sub-standard" hotel. The passengers did not hide their displeasure at Air India "not taking proper care" of them.

The Boeing 747-400 with 434 passengers returned to Heathrow within 20 minutes of taking off on Thursday night following the bird-hit. Ninety-six passengers were yesterday flown by a relief aircraft to New Delhi via Ahmedabad while the others returned today after the Boeing's damaged engine was replaced.

"I left New York on October 11. It took five days to reach Delhi. What can be more disgusting than this?" said Harbans Kaur, who pointed out she had obtained leave for only 15 days to attend a family function here.

"The treatment we got in London is really a lifetime experience. Nobody took proper care of the passengers. We had to spend the night of October 12 in the lawns of the airport as no accommodation was provided to us," the 50-year-old Kaur told PTI.

Kaur's husband Harjit Ghai said the passengers were confused after the flight returned to Heathrow as there was no communication from Air India about the reason for delay in taking off again for India.

"We did not know what was the cause of delay. There was complete chaos and confusion. After five or six hours of the scheduled departure time, we were told that the flight would not go due to a technical snag," he said.

Kanta Supti, a nurse in London, said the airline's officials were not to be seen during the "entire terrible night. Only the next morning, we were taken to a hotel.

"Some Air India people came and took us to a hotel, which was a sub-standard one. The food was so bad that I could not eat it," she said.

"I will make a claim for compensation. This is not the service I had expected," Supti said.

Despite all their anger, the passengers emotionally hugged their relatives who came to receive them at the arrival terminal here.

"I have come as I am getting married on October 28. Now two days have been wasted," said Sandeep Gill.

The passengers were unhappy as nobody from Air India had apologised for the problems they had faced.

"Even after so much ill-treatment, nobody from Air India came and apologised. I will definitely make a complaint to the authorities," said Ajeet Singh, whose wife and son came by the flight.

                                          ****

This report deserves 5 stars for humour!!!!

Passengers miffed at AI service
 
Flight AI 112 delayed in London, 248 stranded complain of officials’ ‘lackadaisical attitude’
 
Express News Service
 
Mumbai, october 15: The 20-odd passengers of the Air India (AI) flight from London that landed in Mumbai on Sunday are not a happy lot. They are of the opinion that the national carrier officials did not treat them well during their three-day stay in the English capital.

These passengers, along with 248 others, were stranded in London as the flight (AI 112) took them back to the place after taking off sighting a technical snag.

 
 
According to the grudging passengers, the drama began even before the flight took off. The New York-London-New Delhi-Mumbai (AI 112) flight was to depart from London at 9.45 pm on October 12, but was delayed for four hours. ‘‘It finally departed at about 2 am,’’ said Tapan Karambelkar, a business management student who was returning home.

Karambelkar added that after about 20 minutes of flying when the seat belt sign had just come off, the pilot announced that the plane had developed a ‘‘technical fault’’ and they would have to return to Heathrow airport. The aircraft made an emergency landing after dumping fuel into the English Chanel.

‘‘While on flight, we were told that AI officials would help us as soon as we landed,’’ recalled Karambelkar. But for the next two hours, the harrowed passengers saw no AI official at the airport. ‘‘There was a lot of confusion. No one turned up for a long time,’’ said Jayantilal Vaishnav, a medicine manufacturer. ‘‘Every time we called the communication centre, we were given different information,’’ an angry Dr Salil Dhamankar, a paediatrician, said.

The passengers were later put up in three hotels for the next two days — their food taken care of, but there was still no clue of when they would finally depart.

‘‘They really didn’t have any contingency plan. Any other airline would have had something in place to help people who wanted to go on an emergency,’’ said Dr Dhamankar. ‘‘Our luggage was on the plane, but we were herded to the hotels. We lost a lot of time.’’

The plane finally took off on Saturday after Air India sent the spare parts from India to get the aircraft repaired. But then, it was not without hiccups as the lights kept going off while the plane taxied around on the tarmac— due to a ’technical problem’.

The spokesperson for Air India, S Venkat, when contacted said that the emergency landing had to be made as there had been a ‘‘foreign object injection’’ either from the runway or in air. Explaining the delay in deciding what had to be done with the passengers, he said, ‘‘We had to try and see if the problem could be solved. Once that was ruled out, the passengers were provided accommodation in hotels. Ours was not the only flight that was cancelled that day, two other flights were also cancelled. That led to a lot of confusion at the airport initially. But we did look after the passengers well.’’

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1830695,0008.htm
Praful dumps delayed A-I flight

Vijay Dutt and Nandini R Iyer

London/New Delhi, October 27, 2006
 
Air-India has yet another angry customer — the civil aviation minister. Praful Patel was scheduled to fly the national carrier from London to Mumbai on Thursday night, when a delayed take-off — reportedly caused by the late arrival of the flight's crew — made him change his plans. He flew back on Jet Airways instead.

On a private visit to London, Patel was to fly back to Mumbai on Air-India. On arrival at Heathrow Airport, the minister discovered that the crew had also only just arrived.

The crew, said sources, was late by well over an hour, resulting in a 30-minute delay in take-off. Patel switched to Jet Airways, which also had a scheduled departure at the same time, 9.30 pm, and landed in Mumbai on schedule.

"I have enough choices," Patel told HT on Saturday. "But what about the average traveller who relies on Air-India and cannot switch flights at a moment's notice?" Patel added that his ministry would be launching an inquiry into this 'negligence'. "We will take action against those who are responsible," he said.

Air-India sources in London said the delay in takeoff was caused by the increased number of security barriers at Heathrow which are manned by the British Airport Authority. The crew had  fixed duty hours and could not come in too early, they said.

Patel is not buying the argument. "Other airlines are functioning on time in spite of security checks. If the check takes more time, airline employees will just have to start reporting to work earlier than usual. They cannot keep passengers waiting because they do not want to report to work earlier," he said.

Ironically, the minister had only days ago — during the launch of Indian’s new Airbus aircraft — warned both Air-India and Indian employees. "They have to realise their responsibility towards the country, and the people they fly," he had said. "Every person in the organisation will have to understand that these are changing times." Message received, loud and clear.
 
 

http://www.teluguportal.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=19767

Praful Patel asks national carriers to wake up
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 1 (IANS) Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Wednesday asked the management and employees of the national air carriers to wake up and put their act together soon.

Patel accompanied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the foundation stone laying for a new international terminal here. A hangar unit of Air India is also being set up near the Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Patel had switched airlines from Air India to Jet Airways last week for flying from London's Heathrow airport to Mumbai as the national carrier's flight was delayed because the crew turned up an hour late.

"If the employees and the management do not wake up in all respects, then things could be bad. They should be effective and what has happened in the last few weeks does not augur well. This should not have happened," said Patel prior to the ceremony.

Patel also thanked the efforts of the prime minister for going ahead with the purchase of 18 new aircraft for the national carriers.

"The last time this happened was when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister. I am also happy to say that the Thiruvananthapuram airport would now act as the base airport for Air India Express'(Boeing) 737 aircraft," said Patel.

He added that efforts were under way to build a new airport at Kannur in north Kerala.

It appears that the the joke doing the rounds in AI is that Praful Bhaiyya must have been dying to fly by Jet. Just made an excuse of transferring to Jet from AI by saying the crew were late. Anyway the guy is Union Minister for 9W.